Flood — Jefferson, Illinois

2021-07-16 to 2021-07-17 · near Mt Vernon, Jefferson, Illinois

Event narrative

Several streets on the south side of Mt. Vernon had standing water over them. Record flooding occurred on Rayse Creek in southwest Jefferson County. A motorist drowned after driving into the creek flooding on a county road south of Woodlawn. The incident occurred during the early morning hours of the 17th following the heavy rain on the 16th. The vehicle and driver were swept away in the creek. Both were recovered a couple days later. The storm total rainfall southwest of Mount Vernon was 6.0 inches, both at Scheller and Marcoe.

Wider weather episode

A series of slow-moving lines and clusters of thunderstorms moved east-southeast across southern Illinois from the midday hours through the early evening hours. The storms produced flooding rains and isolated strong wind gusts. The storms intensified during peak afternoon heating within a region of unstable southwest flow ahead of a mid-level disturbance. The disturbance rotated eastward near St. Louis, Missouri just ahead of a cold front. The soil across southern Illinois was saturated from an early morning round of thunderstorms. Runoff from the afternoon storms caused very large rises on area creeks, mainly north of a line from Carbondale to Harrisburg. One fatality was associated with record flooding of Rayse Creek near Mount Vernon.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.3200, -88.9185)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 968181. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.